QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH PROPOSALS WITH INTEGRITY

Dr. L. MeadowsUniversity of CalgaryDepartments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences

21ST ANNUAL Primary Care Statistics and Research Methods ConferenceSan Antonio 2007

SELF INTRODUCTIONS

INTRODUCTION and OVERVIEW

OVERVIEW OF SEMINARELEMENTS OF A QUALITATIVE PROPOSALINTEGRITY OF QUALITATIVE METHODSRESOURCES FOR QUALITATIVE HEALTH RESEARCH

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

EXPERIENCES OF PEOPLE IN EVERYDAY LIVESNATURALISTIC ENQUIRY –

NATURALLY OCCURRING PHENOMENON IN NATURAL SETTING

EXPLORING INDUCTIVELY WHAT IS CURRENTLY UNKNOWN

LOCAL OR SPECIFIC TO GENERALIZATIONS

Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

ELEMENTS OF A PROPOSAL: TERMS AND CONCEPTS

PARADIGMSTUDYSTUDY DESIGNMETHODSSTRATEGIESTECHNIQUESCONSISTENCY CHECKS

PARADIGMS

PARADIGMS ARE OVERARCHING APPROACHES

GUBA AND LINCOLN (1989) - WITHIN EACH THERE ARE PARADIGMATIC DIVISIONS AND CATEGORIES TO BE DISCUSSED

Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

STUDY

A RESEARCH EXERCISE THAT HAS A BEGINNING AND AN END

Thurston et al.; McDaniel RR Jr.

STUDY DESIGN

STUDY DESIGN: GENERAL STATEMENT OF PURPOSE, METHODS TO BE USED, AND OUTCOMES EXPECTEDTHE MAP THAT ASSISTS RESEARCHER, REVIEWERS AND FUNDERS TO UNDERSTAND YOUR STUDY AND PROPOSAL

Morse and Richards, 2002; Thurston et al., in press.

METHODS

METHODS REFER TO RESEARCH APPROACHES “BASED ON THEORETICAL ASSUMPTIONS THAT COMBINE TO FORM A PARTICULAR APPROACH TO DATA AND MODE OF ANALYSIS” (ADAPTED FROM MORSE & RICHARDS, 2002, P.2)

COHORT STUDY, CASE STUDY, PHENOMENOLOGY, OR GROUNDED THEORY

Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

STRATEGIES

ARE ELEMENTS WITHIN OUR CHOSEN METHOD THAT SUPPORT THE OVERALL DESIGN

STRATEGIES OF SAMPLINGSTRATEGIES OF DATA COLLECTIONSTRATEGIES OF DATA ANALYSISSTRATEGIES OF RIGOURSTRATEGIES OF ETHICAL ADHERENCE

Meadows et al., Denzin and Lincoln; Crabtree and Miller.

TECHNIQUES

METHODOLOGICAL TECHNIQUES ARE USED WITHIN OUR CHOSEN STRATEGIES

SNOWBALL SAMPLING; OBSERVATION, THEMATIC ANALYSIS, VERIFICATION, VALIDATION, ANONYMITY, INFORMED CONSENT

NATURE OF QUESTIONS

YOUR RESEARCH QUESTION IDENTIFIES THE APPROPRIATE RESEARCH PARADIGM TO BE USED AND GUIDES THE STUDY DESIGNTHERE MUST BE CONSISTENCY AMONG YOUR PURPOSE, RESEARCH QUESTION AND GOALS

EXAMPLES

does perceive = experience?does understand = perceive?does knowledge = practice?what if we cannot observe?

Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

STUDY DESIGN

WHAT IS YOUR MAP? HOW DO YOU DESCRIBE YOUR COMPASS?

WHAT STRATEGIES NEED TO BE USED, SUPPORTED BY WHAT TECHNIQUES

Morse and Richards; Meadows, Verdi and Crabtree

THE INTEGRITY OF QUALITATIVE PROPOSALS

NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE VARIETY OF METHODS AVAILABLE FOR QHRNECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND THE RELATIONSHIP AMONG RESEARCH QUESTION, METHOD, AND DESIRED RESULTS

THE INTEGRITY OF QUALITATIVE PROPOSALS

NOT ALL QUALITATIVE METHODS INTEGRATE ASPECTS OF A PROJECT IN THE SAME WAY

Morse and Richards; Thurston, Cove and Meadows

TWO IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES OF QUALITATIVE METHODS

METHODOLOGICAL PURPOSIVENESS

METHODOLOGICAL CONGRUENCE

RAISE NO QUESTIONS FOR REVIEWERS – OR AS FEW AS POSSIBLE!

METHODOLOGICAL PURPOSIVENESS

Particular research purposes and questions lead the researcher to data sources and analytic strategies

Morse and Richards

PURPOSIVENESS

Not being constrained nor using as an excuse what you know, what others will allow, or not adequately preparing by finding out what is already known and how.

Morse and Richards

METHODOLOGICAL CONGRUENCE

There must be congruence in the way in which the researcher asks the question, (e.g, what they ask), where they ask it (e.g., the setting), and how the question is answered (e.g, data analysis and interpretation)

Morse and Richards; Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

METHODOLOGICAL CONGRUENCE

FIT BETWEEN RESEARCH PROBLEM AND QUESTION;

FIT BETWEEN THE RESEARCH QUESTION AND THE METHOD

Morse and Richards; Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

METHODOLOGICAL CONGRUENCE

FIT AMONG METHOD, STRATEGIES AND TECHNIQUESNOT RIGID AND INFLEXIBLE, BUT MUST LEARN TO THINK WITHIN THE METHOD - EACH METHOD A WAY OF ABOUT DATA AND USING TECHNIQUES TO WORK WITH IT

DEVELOPING YOUR PROPOSAL

BUDGET – OFTEN SEEN AS FIRST STEPSTUDY PURPOSE, RESEARCH QUESTIONRESOURCES (PEOPLE, SPACE, EQUIPMENT, MANAGEMENT,TIMELINE)FUNDERS’ GUIDELINES

DEVELOPING YOUR PROPOSAL

MATCH OF BUDGET TO TEXTWEB BASED MODULES (CV, BUDGET)REGISTRATIONPROPOSAL BODYREFERENCES, GRAPHS, APPENDICES

DEVELOPING YOUR PROPOSAL

MULTIPLE REVIEWS IN-HOUSE, MENTORS, PEERSFINE TOOTH COMBINGASSEMBLYCI ELEMENTSSIGNATURES

SELECTED REFERENCESCrabtree BF and Miller WL (Eds.) 1999 Doing Qualitative Research (2nd

Ed). Thousand Oaks: Sage.Denzin, NK and Lincoln YS (Eds.) 2003. Strategies of Qualitative Inquiry. Thousand Oaks: Sage.Meadows, LM, Verdi, AJ, Crabtree, BF 2003. Keeping up appearances: using qualitative methods in dental research. Journal of Dental Education, 67(9): 981-990 Morse JM, Richards L. 2002 Readme First for a User's Guide to Qualitative Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications;.Thurston, W.E., Cove, L. & Meadows, L.M. (In press) Methodological congruence in complex and collaborative mixed method studies. International Journal of Multiple Research Approaches.

NOTE: Additional references will be provided in session.

Thurston, Cove and Meadows, in press.

And so we begin ….